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Top Guns: Winnipeg Jets Best Playmakers

Over the past three seasons, underlying numbers have increased greatly in understanding for the general public. At the same time, Winnipeg has enjoyed three seasons of the Jets second edition as a NHL franchise.

In this mini-series, Arctic Ice Hockey takes a look at how the Jets’ roster has performed in these metrics relative to each other in finding the best of the best. We also look at how new Jets Mathieu Perreault and T.J. Galiardi have performed in these numbers over the same time period.

In this edition, we look at assist to find the Jets best playmakers. Now of course, assists come in all types of forms, from rebounds, to breakout passes, etc. There is an algorithm used to diminish these factors, but we'll just show the three main stats within the algorithm. The three numbers are a player's primary assists, total assists, and non-blocked shot attempts, to give an idea of which guys are likely the best playmakers.

Top End Players

First let's look at the players most likely to fill the top end of the roster.

Player A1/60 A/60 iFen/60
Blake Wheeler 0.87 1.32 12.15
Bryan Little 0.81 1.19 7.92
Michael Frolik* 0.80 1.23 12.51
Evander Kane 0.69 0.97 16.89
Andrew Ladd 0.51 1.05 12.11
Mark Scheifele 0.37 0.87 7.97
Mathieu Perreault 0.91 1.33 8.18

iFen/60 is the individuals non-blocked shot volume per an hour of 5v5 time
*Frolik and Halischuk's numbers are only for their 2013-14 season, due to being new additions to the Jets

Thoughts:

* It's a tough call on who is better between Blake Wheeler and Bryan Little. Wheeler has better primary and total assist rates, but likely more of his assists are from rebounds given his shot volume. Both do have excellent vision but I'm going to give slight edge to Little… maybe in part due to Little's tendency in being heavily underrated and unappreciated by many.

* Michael Frolik, Evander Kane, and Andrew Ladd are all guys who like to shoot and don't draw too many assists from pretty passes.

* Mark Scheifele’s numbers, given his skill-set, are likely to change and improve over the years. The kid has some sweet passes.

* Mathieu Perreault is actually 20th in the entire NHL for forwards over the past 3 seasons in A1/60, with Wheeler at 29th and Little at 43rd.

Bottom End Players

Now let's look at the players most likely not to fill the top end of the roster.

Player A1/60 A/60 iFen/60
Anthony Peluso 0.92 0.92 6.07
Eric O`Dell 0.88 0.88 5.91
Matt Halischuk* 0.51 0.64 9.33
Chris Thorburn 0.51 0.76 6.45
Eric Tangradi 0.28 0.45 9.60
Jim Slater 0.26 0.43 8.36
TJ Galiardi 0.44 0.77 10.49

iFen/60 is the individuals non-blocked shot volume per an hour of 5v5 time
*Frolik and Halischuk's numbers are only for their 2013-14 season, due to being new additions to the Jets

Thoughts:

* There is likely a lot more sample size bias, especially with sample sizes as small as Anthony Peluso’s and Eric O`Dell’s. Because of this, the numbers are a lot uglier and tougher to find the true bottom six set up players.

* Chris Thorburn has some decent numbers, although there is a chance some of his and Halischuk's numbers are influenced by their time on ice they've been given in the top six over the last while. On the other hand, maybe that's why they got the promotions.

* Slater being on the bottom isn’t too much of a surprise. As fellow AIH author Truck sometimes says, puck possession seems to die on Jim Slater’s stick.

* I'm going to give Tangradi similar status as Mark Scheifele, in that I expect his numbers to rise due to the eye-test. Tangradi tends to try and hit the trailer from the boards, but the trailer has often failed to make much of his opportunities… maybe he will find chemistry with new guy, TJ Galiardi?

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